Nico Hulkenberg says he was impressed by Robert Kubica completing over 140 laps behind the wheel of the Renault RS17 at the Hungaroring last week.

Having tested the 2012 Lotus E20 at Valencia and Paul Ricard earlier this year, Kubica drove Renault’s 2017-spec F1 car on the second and final day of the in-season test in Hungary.

The 32-year-old Pole clocked up 142 laps with a best time of 1m18.572s, which left him fourth-fastest that day.

“To be honest, I don’t have much information. I wasn’t on-site. I had some information and I obviously saw the laptimes. I think, for him personally, obviously a great comeback”, Renault driver Hulkenberg told Motorsport.com at the Gamma Racing Day event in the Netherlands.

“After the severe accident and injuries he had to come back and drive a modern Formula 1 car and to do 140 laps, just like that, is quite impressive.

“Especially at a track like Budapest, which is very physical. So respect for that. And I think the performance also, it seemed alright.

Last stage of Acropolis Rally 2017 was really disaster for some crews. After Al-Attiyah’s retirement on one stage before, there three crews retired from Top 10 on last stage.

Murat Bostanci got third place after Al-Attiyah’s retirement due steering failure, but he had accident on last stage and he lost important points for championship. Also home runner, Yorgo Philippedes with Škoda Fabia R5, lost his fourth place overall with accident on last stage.

Albert von Thurn und Taxis also rolled on last stage after he was on P7.

Kajetanowicz won all three last stages when Magalhaes lost more time on SS11, where he must to stopped due no working wipers.

Valentino Rossi says moving his VR46 outfit up from Moto2 and Moto3 to MotoGP is not yet on his radar.

Rossi formed his junior outfit in Moto3 in 2014 and it has expanded into Moto2 this year, fielding Italian riders alongside his burgeoning rider academy.

CEO of MotoGP promoter Dorna, Carmelo Ezpeleta, told Motorsport.com that Rossi’s team is guaranteed grid slots in the premier class should it choose to step up as a way of keeping Rossi involved after the 38-year-old retires.

Rossi said he is “very grateful” or the offer, but that it was not something he was rushing to take up.

“For the moment I have no plans to have a team in MotoGP,” he said. “Maybe in 10 years, when we are older, but at the moment we prefer to focus on young riders.

“Carmelo said to me that he’s very happy if I have a team in MotoGP. I am very happy too, so thanks to Carmelo but at this moment Read the rest of this entry »

Valtteri Bottas claims first ever win! Valtteri Bottas won the Russian Grand Prix like a rocket at the start and like a limpet at the finish. In doing so he poured a can of worms all over Lewis Hamilton’s head.

Sebastian Vettel grabbed pole in qualifying for the Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix, as Ferrari took a historic one-two for the first time since the 2008 French GP.

Vettel was beaming after earning his first pole of the season and his first since Singapore 2015. Qualifying has been Ferrari’s Achilles Heel for a decade and especially in the hybrid turbo era.

In Q3 it looked like he would fall behind his team mate Kimi Raikkonen. However, it was his last attempt, after a false start affected by a Red Bull in his eyeline in Turn 2, on which he set the fastest time of 1m33.194s, 0.059s ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

“In Q3 the first run wasn’t tidy, so I left it to the end. I knew it would be tight, I knew also I would be the first one to cross the line, but then I immediately opened the radio to ask about everybody else. When I got the message that we got [pole], obviously I was over the moon,” said Vettel.

Raikkonen missed out on a potential pole-position by running wide on his final lap. He will take second on the grid. His last front-row start was at Monza in 2015.